With projectors now in wide use for teaching and training purposes and also increasingly for retrieval of information, the recurring problems are threading and removal of film from the projector, precise operation of the projector in both forward and reverse for locating specific frames of film, protection of the film from mechanical damage during the starting, running and stopping phases, and maintaining proper film tension at the reel. Solving the three latter problems in an automatically threading projector is especially important inasmuch as most users of these devices are not especially skilled in projector operation and lack the expertise required to manipulate the film in a manner to insure its safety from damage during use. Although many proposals have been made to simplify threading and removal of film, to provide forward and reverse operation for rapid search as well as to provide for the safety of the film in the event of loop loss, all of the known mechanism require accurate, skilled manipulation of the film. Self-threading projectors of the general kind above-referred to are disclosed in application Ser. No. 370,015 filed June 14, 1973 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,981.